The quote above perfectly captures why ICBA is fighting so hard for community banks in this generational fight over financial reform. ICBA is fighting for what is RIGHT. While others fight to protect their turf or to keep their special privileges (such as too-big-to-fail), ICBA fights for basic fairness for community banks as Ezra Klein puts so well in his May 2 column. And we fight for Main Street customers nationwide.

The financial services system in this country lost its way over the past 30 years. Real people got hurt. Community banks got hurt. The system became tilted against Main Street community banks in favor of Wall Street size and privilege. The Washington Post article captures in a nutshell what we are fighting for—FAIRNESS in our financial services system. Yet, we are being relentlessly attacked and misrepresented for our stand. BUT WE WON’T BE COWED. We will continue to fight for basic balance and fairness for community banks and their rightful place in the financial services system. Community banks ARE important; community banks DO count! Community banks are good stewards of their depositors’ money and do their best to serve the needs of their customers, because they live, work and worship in those same communities.

So please read this article, ladies and gentlemen, and come to understand where ICBA and those we represent are coming from. We don’t come from Wall Street. We don’t represent Wall Street. We don’t take a dime in dues from Wall Street mega firms. We represent those men and women and their banks that serve local markets, small towns and cities and the rural areas of this nation. And we don’t advocate or stand for something simply because it is legal—we fight for basic principles of fairness, access and equal voice because it is right!

I am so very proud of our thousands of community bank members nationwide and how they have endured not only this crisis, but the inequities of the past 30 years.